Coco Gauff is the youngest American to win a Grand Slam title since Serena Williams. Photo courtesy of si.robi via Wikimedia Commons.
By Genevieve Zahner ’26
Staff Writer
Coco Gauff, a 19-year-old tennis player from Delray Beach, Florida, has dominated social media and news outlets for her recent singles victory at the U.S. Open. As ESPN highlighted, Gauff is the youngest American competitor to win this event since Serena Williams’ 1999 victory.
In the finals, the stakes were high for Gauff, who was originally seeded sixth in the tournament. ESPN reported that her opponent, Aryna Sabalenka, had won 27 out of the tournament’s 28 previous finals. However, by the fourth game of the match, Gauff gained her footing and had an 81 percent win on her serves. In the final set, Gauff leaped ahead with a 4-0 lead over Sabalenka. The final took over two hours to complete, including a medical timeout.
According to ESPN, once the match ended, Gauff collapsed on the court and sobbed in relief. After hugging her opponent, she went to the stands to celebrate with her parents. Gauff then thanked those who did not believe in her.
“I’ve tried my best to carry this with grace and I’ve been doing my best. So honestly, to those who thought they were putting water on my fire, you were really adding gas to it. And now I’m really burning so bright right now,” she said, as reported by ESPN.
Gauff’s success did not begin at the U.S. Open. She competed in the Wimbledon Championships in 2019 when she was just 15 years old and reached the fourth round. Since 2019, she has won five Women’s Tennis Association titles and competed as a finalist in the 2022 French Open. This year, Gauff also reached the quarterfinals of the doubles tournament at the U.S. Open with her partner Jessica Pegula, attaining the top doubles ranking. Gauff received $3 million dollars for her victory, as well as a number three standing on the women’s singles ranking, with her opponent, Sabalenka, at number one.
Rachel Allen ’27, a member of the Mount Holyoke Tennis team, offered what she thought about Gauff’s success at such a young age.
“After her win at the U.S. Open, she will become even more of a household name, and she'll continue to inspire young players and specifically young players of color and hopefully bring tennis to even greater audiences,” Allen said.
Before the nerve-wracking finals, tempers flared in the first round of the tournament. Gauff played Laura Siegemund, a German tennis player with two Grand Slam titles under her belt, and vocalized her discontentwhen time violations were not being called. According to Just Women’s Sports, Gauff spoke to the chair umpire, urging her to call the time violations on Siegemund, who consistently went over time and repeatedly stalled whenever it was Gauff’s turn to serve.
“How is this fair?” Gauff said to the umpire in the third set, Just Women’s Sports reported. “I don’t care what she’s doing on her serve, but [on] my serve, she has to be ready.”
Gauff said she does not regret speaking to the umpire and only wishes she had done it sooner to prevent the delays. The crowd eventually got involved, with boos and jeers directed at Siegemund.
Upset by the crowd's participation in the action, Siegemund commented, “I am very, very disappointed [by] the way people treated me today … They treated me like I was a bad person,” according to ABC News. However, Gauff claimed that the crowd’s participation in the match was a “vital momentum-changer” for her eventual victory over Siegemund, ABC News reported.
“I thought Gauff handled her situation very well,” Allen said, mentioning that their attendance at the match allowed them to watch this unfold in real-time. “In tennis, you have to play at the server's pace, within reason, and Siegemund was playing very slowly,” Allen said.
Through the victories and frustrations that made this U.S. Open a historic and explosive event, Gauff persevered and took home the trophy, now engraved with her name alongside tennis greats such as Venus and Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. Gauff now has $3 million dollars, a trophy and a Grand Slam on her resume, all at the age of 19.